First Case of Corona Virus Confirmed in the UAE

January 29, 2020

Dubai: According to Gulf News, UAE on Wednesday confirmed its first case of the Wuhan coronavirus. According to the Ministry of Health, the virus was detected in a family coming from Wuhan in China. It did not say exactly how many people have been diagnosed or their location in the UAE.

“The health condition of those infected is stable and under medical observation”, the ministry said in a statement carried by Wam. The Ministry also confirmed that necessary precautions have been taken according to the WHO recommendations.

Source: CDC US

The Ministry stated that there is no risk to the public at this point and the healthcare system is working very efficiently and the ministry is following the situation to ensure the safety and health of everyone in the UAE.

Guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Prevention in hospitals across the country say patients should be assessed for the virus if they meet certain criteria.

These include coughing or having difficulty breathing – with or without a fever. They also include a history of travel to China in the last 14 days, or close contact with a person who is unwell and under investigation for the virus.

“Healthcare providers should obtain a detailed travel history for patients being evaluated with fever and acute respiratory illness. Cases with epidemiological exposure, visit to Wuhan or contact with a laboratory-confirmed case should be urgently notified to the relevant health department.”

So far, at least 16 countries around the world have recorded cases of novel coronavirus believed to be originated from China, number of cases in China jumped to 5,974 on Wednesday, up from 4,515 on Tuesday.

Countries around the world have stepped up their screening of travellers in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.

The coronavirus causes severe acute respiratory infection and can be accompanied with cold and flu-like symptoms. There is currently no specific cure or vaccine.

The best way to do so is to avoid exposure to this virus. The WHO recommends the following everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses:

Source: WHO

Is there a vaccine for Coronavirus?

According to LiveScience.com, work has begun at multiple organizations, including the National Institutes of Health of US, to develop a vaccine for this new strain of coronavirus, known among scientists as 2019-nCoV.

Scientists are just getting started working, but their vaccine development strategy will benefit both from work that has been done on closely related viruses, such as SARS and MERS, as well as advances that have been made in vaccine technologies, such as nucleic acid vaccines, which are DNA- and RNA-based vaccines that produce the vaccine antigen in your own body.

work involves designing the vaccine constructs – for example, producing the right target antigens, viral proteins that are targeted by the immune system, followed by testing in animal models to show that they are protective and safe.